Seed bombs are a necessary item in the arsenal of the guerrilla gardener - they are small balls of clay, compost and seeds which can be thrown into plant-deprived places, such as vacant blocks, neglected car park gardens or beside train tracks. Today we rolled up our sleeves and made a whole bunch of seed bombs containing seeds for edible flowers and companion plants.

We kneaded together 5 parts clay to 1 part organic matter (compost and coconut coir), then added about a teaspoon of seeds and rolled it into a ball.

Once all the seeds were rolled up into little bombs we put them into egg cartons to dry out. Once they are dry we'll hurl them into drab patches of dirt around the place (most of the seeds we chose flower best in full sun, so we'll try to find sunny spots). Then, we wait for it to rain - the rain will wet the organic matter, which will swell and force the bomb apart. The seeds will also soak up the rain and germinate into a lovely clay and compost soil. Hopefully in late spring and early summer the 'bomb site' will be filled with delightful flowers - keep an eye out for updates!

And then we had cupcakes and tea, I'd like to think that this is also an integral part of the guerrilla gardener lifestyle.

MUC and Horticultured have similar goals, so it was only a matter of time before we conspired together. On a not-too-cold Friday afternoon, members from both clubs gathered at the Burnley Nursery to give spring and summer vegetables a bit of a head start in a greenhouse.

While the end of winter is still too cold outside for most seeds to germinate – they’d prefer to wait for warmer and sunnier times – a greenhouse provides an environment conducive to growing. Particularly a fancy one set at optimum temperature, sunlight and humidity for seed sprouting like the ones at Burnley.

After a bit of discussion at the start about how many of what we should plant, and into what size pots (there are surprisingly many to choose from), the potting shed turned into a well-oiled planting machine. There were labels to be made (a critical and often neglected step of planting – how many times have you ended up with fifty mystery tomatoes, and only one capsicum?), punnets to be filled with seed raising mix (finer than regular potting soil, and with a bit less fertiliser), holes to be made with super-special dibblers (aka chopsticks) and seeds to be carefully dropped in and covered with a fine dusting of soil. Finally, all the trays had to be watered in gently ‘like rain’, so as not to disturb the seeds.

We planted Burnley Surecrop Tomatoes, which were actually developed at Burnley back in ye olde days, plus a rainbow of other tomatoes, sunflowers, a few capsicums and cucumbers, pumpkins and basil. They will go into the MUC and Horticultured gardens, and some will be sold at the Farmers Market.

We’ll keep you updated on their progress! Eventually they will need to be re-planted into bigger pots and moved to a brighter and less humid greenhouse to keep growing, so if you couldn’t make it this times, don't worry, you didn’t miss out on all the fun.

Because of the good turnout, we finished the seed planting early and had a bit of time to wander down to the Horticultured Community Gardens. We did some weeding (as always), put down more tanbark to keep the weeds down, installed a sign, AND DISCOVERED ASPARAGUS GROWING. Some of it was unintentionally blanched under a thick pile of mulch, but look at those big fat beauties!

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Read all about it: MUC Garden and Burnley Student Association share updates on their activities.